France issued Wednesday nearly eight billion euro medium-term debt at a lower cost than in April when the first auction of securities of a period of two to five years since the election of Francois Hollande as President of the Republic.

BTAN of the 5-year benchmark was served at an average rate of 1.72%, a record low at an auction of a 5-year benchmark. In April, Agence France Trésor, which manages the debt of the State, had issued the same BTAN at an average rate of 1.83%.

The BTAN reference to two years was awarded to the average rate of 0.74% against 0.85% in April.

AFT issued a total of 7.996 billion euros, the maximum target was announced that $ 8.0 billion.

Overall demand was strong, totaling 23.675 billion euros, giving a coverage ratio (amount requested on amount used) high of 2.96 against 2.58 in April and an average of 2.38 in 2011.

"Very good French auctions. Demand was very strong on the two years and five years, "said Peter Chatwell, rates strategist at Credit Agricole CIB

… …… "If you need to invest in euros, France is a much more attractive proposition than Germany. The coverage ratio is huge, "said Marc Oswald, strategist at Monument Securities in London, adding that this does not mean that fears about France and the euro area have disappeared ……

… "The question is whether France will fail in the next three to four years. I reply emphatically not, and on this basis, the French return to Germany is relatively attractive, "says he

…… Germany …, reference in the market for sovereign debt in the euro area, has awarded its side Wednesday 4.1 billion euros of 10-year Bund, for a total announced ; of 5.0 billion euros, the coverage ratio is set at 1.5 against an average of 1.36 since the beginning of the year ….. The Bund

…. suffers from its success as a safe haven of the eurozone. The show is made to a historically low rate of 1.47%.

Secondary market, the 10-year Bund yield fell to 1.43% Tuesday, a record low while the risk aversion wins and assuming an output of Greece in the euro area.

Strategists point out that demand is not "fantastic" but it is solid given the very low yield of the Bund.

For Michael Leister, strategist at DZ Bank in Frankfurt, where the yield spreads between French and German bonds rose, due to the political stalemate in Greece and renewed concerns about the euro area, "throughout the French bonds also benefit from the uncertainty." 

AFT has also issued 1.182 billion euros Wednesday of comparable Treasury bonds indexed to French inflation (OATi) and inflation in the euro area (OATei) of maturities in 2022, 2023 and 2027, at the top of the announced objectives (1.2 billion). Demand amounted to 3.467 billion euros, giving a coverage ratio of 2.9.

Loss in the first quarter, Dexia meets this Wednesday's meeting in Brussels but will likely wait until the inauguration of François Hollande to resolve the issue of governance.

The Board of Directors of the Franco-Belgian bank being dismantled in the day must appoint Karel De Boeck, former managing director of financial group Fortis as administrator.

The Belgian government has officially said Tuesday he wanted it to become CEO of the bank instead of French Pierre Mariani but the French authorities have not yet given ; no official position on this issue. 

The issue of governance is urgent because of a relative Luc Coene, the Governor of the Central Bank of Belgium, believes that Dexia will likely need to be recapitalized again.

Dexia announced a net loss of 431 million euros for the first three months of the year, attributable to "non-recurring items", basically the cost of government guarantees covering its financing and depreciation.

The bank said that the State guarantees French, Belgian and Luxembourg were a quarterly cost of 128 million euros.

She also recorded an impairment of EUR 145 million on its stake in Kommunalkredit Austria and an "adjustment" of € 102 million related to the sale of Dexia Municipal Agency. The property must be sold to the French state and the post office to create a new credit institution to local communities.

The Belgian government said it wants to renegotiate the distribution of 90 billion euros of financing guarantees granted to France with the new government of Francois Hollande.

Since the decision late last year to dismantle Dexia, the Belgian authorities have carried out the nationalization of retail banking activities in Belgium while France has decided to return via the CDC and the Postal Bank, the activities of local government financing.

The bank suffered a net loss of 11.6 billion euros in 2011. 

Although in sharp decline, the size of the stock of Dexia is considered by some analysts as systemic because a failure to pay the bank would have incalculable consequences for the entire sys European Banking me.

Dexia shares was opened down 5.26% Wednesday after the publication of its first quarter results

Around 11:15, the Dexia share yielding 5.26% (0.01 percent) to EUR 0.18, representing a market capitalization of 350 million euros.

German Chancellor on Sunday called President-elect Francois Hollande to congratulate him on his victory and invite him to come to Berlin, according to Pierre Moscovici. German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Sunday urged President-elect Francois Hollande to congratulate him on his victory in the presidential election and invite them to come to Berlin, told AFP the campaign manager of the Socialist Pierre Moscovici.

"Merkel has called him to congratulate him on his election. They had a first exchange and agreed to work together on a Franco-German relationship that is strong and the service of Europe," said Mr. Moscovici. "Merkel has invited him to come to Berlin, which he did soon after his inauguration," he added.

Sales of Mercedes-Benz, the brand upmarket Daimler Group, rose only 3.6% in April, due to a sharp decline in sales volumes in China due to the effect a temporary change of models.

In a statement released Friday, Daimler said the decline in China was due to the low availability in this country in April of popular models like the GLK, a mid-road range, which only came out recently its Beijing plant.

"Mercedes-Benz is on track to achieve its target of double-digit growth in China in 2012," it said in a statement.

China has become the main source of earnings growth for German manufacturers. This is the most important market for Audi and BMW.

Sales of Mercedes have involved 104,344 vehicles in April, bringing to 418,246 the number of automobiles sold by the brand since the beginning of the year, an increase of 9.7%.

April is currently the lowest of the year in terms of growth. The rise in worldwide sales of the brand was 5.1% in January from 20.3% in February and 11% in March.

The producer prices of French industry grew for the third consecutive month in March, rising 0.5%, mainly due to higher oil prices , according to data released Friday by INSEE.

The seven economists polled by Reuters on average expected a rise of 0.6%, with estimates ranging from 0.4% to 1.0%.

The producer prices of French industry had increased by 0.7% in February (0.8% in the first estimate) and 0.6% in January.

The prices of refined products increased by 2.8% in March after rising 3.4% and 5.1% respectively for the months of January and February in line with the current price oil from the North Sea, INSEE said in a statement. 

The price of Brent rose in March from 5.3% in dollars (5.5% in euros) and the last three months of 15.2% in dollar terms (14.7% in euros ).

Rising food prices (+0.4% after +0.5% in February) is mainly due to seasonal increases in meat prices.

Prices of industrial products destined for foreign markets increased by 0.3% in March as the month before.

For all markets, the increase was 0.4% and 3.1% year on year.

European stock markets and debt markets Monday suffer political uncertainties, the first round of presidential elections in France and the failure of the budget discussions in the Netherlands Low-raising fears of further complications to a settlement of the debt crisis in the eurozone.

Markets are also affected by sluggish activity indicators in the euro zone and China.

In France, the second round of presidential elections on May 6 oppose the socialist Francois Hollande and the outgoing president Nicolas Sarkozy, who obtained respectively 28.63% and 27.18% of popular vote final figures of the Ministry of Interior. 

"In general, markets have begun to punish the weak proposals for Francois Hollande to improve the competitiveness of the French economy and lack of leeway policies of Nicolas Sarkozy if he could be elected ", wrote in a note Exane BNP Paribas.

Around noon, the difference (spread) between the rate of return of government bonds to 10 years and its French equivalent German (Bund) is widening three basis points (bps), to 142 bps, after reaching 149 bps in the morning.

This gap, which was only 110 bps at the beginning, had reached 151 basis points Thursday after a rumor about a possible deterioration in the sovereign rating of France. 

"FRANCE IN DOOR-TO-FALSE"

The performance of the French loan to 10 years in the secondary market amounted to 3.10% after exceeding 3.16% in the morning, against 3 , 09% at the close Friday. The rate of the 10-year Bund fell to 1.67% against 1.72% in last weekend.

"If there is a little relief due to the fact that the second round oppose Sarkozy and Holland, it puts France cantilevered overhang with Germany on the future of the euro," said Marc Ostwald , strategist at Monument Securities.

"And it will not help them move toward the union budget, or to allay market fears about the fact that the only solution lies in Eurobonds."

For many analysts, the uncertainty on the French political situation will remain until the June parliamentary, with the government's announcement will come out and the decisions it will take to reduce die ; ficits budget. 

"If Francois Hollande was actually elected, the tensions in financial markets that French does not dissipate during the summer when the new government would present its plan to return to the balance of public finances in 2017 and would confirm with Brussels, "warns CM-CIC Securities.

THE DUTCH CDS AT THE HIGHEST SINCE JANUARY

Investors are also watching the Netherlands, where Prime Minister plans to resign after the failure of budget discussions undertaken in early March with the PVV party which does not belong to government but who supported Parliament.

"The Netherlands could be a problem because so far it was a stable partner in the euro area. (The Dutch situation) reflects increasing tensions in the area. This is really a problem for the market, "said Christian Stocker, Unicredit

. The spread between borrowing born erlandais 10-year Bund and the reference is widening 12 bps to 73 bps and that of the Spanish loan of 7 bps to 432 bps, the Spanish rate in excess of 10 years to the new 6%

. In the market for CDS (Credit Default Swaps) sovereign, a sort of insurance policy against a default, the spread of title 5 years in the Netherlands in the morning hit its highest level since January to 128 bp (9 bp) and that of France is back above the 200 bp Matiné e, to 207 bp (8 bp), according to data from Markit

. On the equity side, the CAC 40 lost 1.69% to 3.134.69 points, the benchmark index of the Paris Bourse now showing a loss of 0.79% since the beginning of the year.

The decline in the CAC 40 is less pronounced than that of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange, whose index DAX, more industrial, abandoned 2.49%, and that the pan-European Euro Stoxx 50 index (-1.97 %).

Instead of Amsterdam loses 2.44% and 2.77% in Madrid.

"There is no real penalty in particular France, the declines are fairly uniform. Should there really be a sanction of scholarships, it would happen more after the results of the second round. For now, the market is more patient, "said Yohan Salleron Mandarine Gestion fund manager at

. The market reaction to concerns about the political future of the euro area is all the more violent it comes at a contecte economic recession

. The index of manufacturing activity in the euro area, distributed in the morning, fell to 46.0, the lowest since June 2009, against 47.7 in March and 48.0 expected. Above all, the German manufacturing sector contracted at its strongest pace in nearly three years, casting doubt on the capacity of the largest economy in the euro area increase growth in the region

. In China, the activity index still reflects a contraction in the manufacturing sector (49.1 against 48.3 in March). But the situation seems to improve with a rebound in the sub-index of orders to 48.9 against 47.4 in March.

A stronger financial barrier is needed globally to guard against a possible new episode of the debt crisis in Europe, said Thursday Christine Lagarde , Executive Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), adding that the IMF needed more resources.

"A barrier higher global will complete the 'circle of protection' of each country. IMF help. But to be as effective as possible, we must increase our resources, "she said

. Christine Lagarde hopes to advance the agenda of means the IMF at the meetings between the IMF and World Bank planned next week

. "(…) the greatest risk threat is the resurgence of turbulence in bond markets and financial in Europe. "

Nokia stock market tumbled Wednesday after throwing a warning on its profits and reported a software bug in its new flagship model, the 900 Lumia, casting doubt on the ambitions a revival of the Finnish manufacturer of the smartphone market.

Nokia has for some time already distanced in this segment, dominated by Apple and Google.

Nokia has warned that he would show, the first and second quarter, representing an operating loss of approximately 3% of its sales in appliances and services, because of competition fe roce raging on the market when the group is reviewing its in-depth product offering.

Around 24:50 GMT, Nokia shares fell 18.3% to 3.12 euros. The stock has lost over half its value since Nokia discontinued its Symbian platform in February 2011, to equip its new smartphone operating system of Microsoft Windows.

"It's a disaster," said Thomas Langer for West LB.

"It was perhaps the most serious risk associated with Nokia model: the discount up to date models Lumia is not fast enough to offset poor sales Symbian. "

The market share of the Finnish group in the smartphone segment declined from 30% to 12% end 2010 end 2011.

In the morning, Nokia had reported a bug on its new model, the Lumia 900. First marketed in the U.S., this smartphone, which includes the operating system Windows Phone from Microsoft, was to be the spearhead of its winback.

"It's as if their engines had stalled at the start of a race, while all the spotlight is on them," said Carolina Milanesi, an analyst at Gartner.

FULL RESET

Lumia The 900 was launched on April 8 by AT & T. It must then be gradually sold worldwide in the current quarter.

In a statement, Nokia said that the outage that affects, and can sometimes result in "a loss of connectivity" refers only to the operating system and that it is linked or the handset or network.

A solution should be found by April 16, explains the Nordic group. He agrees to grant to anyone who bought a 900 Lumia, or which would be by 21 April, a rebate of $ 100 on his phone bill AT & T. This amounts to a full rebate on the price of the unit, sold at 99.99 dollars with a two-year contract.

The announcement of the bug is bad fallen for Nokia, which unveiled its model Wednesday Lumia 610 NFC, the first to include, in addition to the operating system Windows Phone, the NFC (Near Field Communication) in the heart of contactless payments.

NFC technology can transmit data wirelessly to a few centimeters, and so, using his mobile phone to pay for purchases, or save an e-ticket exchange photos and business cards.

This new model, certified for contactless payments using MasterCard and Visa technologies, will be marketed by Orange early in the third quarter, Nokia said. 

Registrations of new cars in France fell by 23.5% in March in raw data, reflects a comparative worst than ever in 2011 when the scrappage dopait sales further.

Renault shares (-1.83%) and PSA Peugeot Citroen (-2.61%) have the largest declines in the CAC 40 index which is 0.43% while the Stoxx sector index of 'European automotive advance of 0.34% to 9:45.

Last month, he registered 197,033 new passenger cars in the Hexagon. After adjustment for working days, the decline appears to 20.0% in March 2012 that were 22 days as against 23 in March 2011, announced Monday the Committee of French Automobile Manufacturers (CCFA).

In January and February this year, the market had already experienced declines of around 20% in raw data, the backlash level of registrations recorded on the pe same period of 2011 through to last orders "cash for clunkers" that could be delivered until March 31 of last year.

"This downturn is spectacular but it was expected," said Flavien Neuvy, Director of the Cetelem automobile. "We still think that most of the decline in yeara was performed in the first quarter and that the scenario of two million vehicles over the year remains relevant in light of new orders and new models coming. "

CCFA has also maintained its estimate of a decline of about 10% of the French automotive market in 2012.

For PSA Peugeot Citroen, which has teamed up in February at General Motors, registrations in France plummeted 33.2% last month while the Renault-including the diamond brand and low cost Dacia brand registrations stand-fall of 29.8%. 

Throughout the first quarter, the French automotive market will be contracted by 21.7% unadjusted and 22.9% when adjusted for working days.

Registrations of PSA for the period fell by 30.3% and Renault's 30.2%, in gross terms in both cases. In contrast, those of the Volkswagen group declined only 2.3%.

The British group International Power said Thursday it had received from its majority shareholder GDF Suez a non-binding offer to purchase shares of the capital it does not already own, at a price of 390 pence.

The announcement comes after months of speculation about the intentions of the French group, which already owns 70% of International Power.

The proposed price is only slightly higher than the closing price on Wednesday (383.4 pence).

After the announcement of the offer, the title International Power gained 5.53% to 404.6 pence at 9:21 GMT.